by Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY Sports

by Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY Sports

SAN FRANCISCO â?? There was a time when Tim Lincecum had major league hitters eating out of his hand. Now he's doing everything possible to avoid being devoured.

In trying to bounce back from his worst season, the two-time Cy Young Award winner has battled through two puzzling starts in which he has been alternately sharp and discombobulated. In 11 innings, Lincecum has 11 strikeouts and a whopping 11 walks while yielding a 4.91 ERA.

The San Francisco Giants right-hander no longer throws in the mid-to-high 90s as he did when he came up in 2007, so he needs to spot his fastball better than before. Does that mean that, at 28, Lincecum has gone from overpowering to crafty?

"And I know hitters are looking at me right now as a real nice piece of meat to eat at times.''

He was positively delectable last year, when he went 10-15 and finished with the worst ERA (5.18) and most runs allowed in the National League. A rough spring impacted by a blister further increased concerns, and the early results so far have been more disconcerting than encouraging.

Lincecum's propensity to give up walks is particularly alarming. He allowed seven during a five-inning season debut last week against the Los Angeles Dodgers, then four more â?? including two to the opposing pitcher â?? Tuesday against the Colorado Rockies. Three of the walks figured in a five-run second that put the Giants in a 5-1 hole, although they climbed back to win 9-6 as Lincecum completed six innings.

Catcher Hector Sanchez said Lincecum was being too fine with his fastball, which typically came in at 91 mph, raising the question of whether he lacks command or confidence in it.

"I do have confidence,'' Lincecum said, "but I'm trying to come back from a year when mechanically I was a little messed up. I wasn't even strong enough to sustain my mechanics.''

Lincecum believes a more rigorous offseason conditioning program has taken care of that issue. And his vaunted changeup still gets him plenty of strikeouts. He averaged one per inning even through last year's struggles.

However, his other secondary pitches have been flat and hittable.

The Rockies' Troy Tulowitzki, who came into Tuesday's game with a .227 batting average in 44 career at-bats against Lincecum, hit a home run off a hanging slider.

"He's gotten himself in some bad counts, but the stuff's still there,'' Tulowitzki said. "The changeup is obviously one of the best in the game, and he competes out there. He's someone I would take on my team any time.''

Giants manager Bruce Bochy also lauded Lincecum's competitiveness in fighting back from a big inning to keep the Giants in the game.

"What I liked about what Timmy did is he put that inning behind him,'' Bochy said. "It's so easy to cave in this game and go, 'Oh no, here we go again.' Timmy didn't do that.''

Lincecum dealt with adversity in his first outing as well, allowing 10 baserunners but just two runs, both unearned.

But that might not be what the Giants, or other suitors, focus on when shopping for starting pitching next offseason. Lincecum is making $22 million this season, his last one before he can become a free agent.

Even a return to his form of 2011, when he logged a 2.74 ERA and struck out 220 batters in 217 innings, would make him a hot commodity on the market.

For that to happen, Lincecum will probably need to prove he can establish his fastball as part of his transition to a different pitcher than he was in his heyday of 2008-09.

"It's trusting that you're going to throw it where you want to throw it,'' Lincecum said. "I think hope goes into a lot of that too, but most of the time you need to erase that and just know. It's there sometimes and then it isn't. It is a transition period, so I'm trying to gauge those percentages and make them better every start.''